source: Joseph Arthur's Facebook page

It must've been when I started going through my old VHS collection that I stumbled upon the Joseph Arthur song "Honey and the Moon." Back in 2003 when "The O.C." first premiered, I'd just gotten my first television set, complete with a built-in VCR though VCRs were on the way out. I took full advantage of my VCR player (which, by the way, still works beautifully and must be the only working VCR for miles) and taped everything I didn't have time to watch, taped everything I knew I'd want to rewatch, and taped everything I thought I'd want to rewatch in ten years' time. I was not wrong.

I found half of the first season of "The O.C." recently when I was clearing out my VHS collection (I saved all 14 or so Backstreet Boys tapes, along with a slew of random pop culture/MTV tapes from the late '90s and early '00s, which includes Britney Spears' very first appearance on "TRL" and New Year's Eve 2001), and if you were a fan of "The O.C." back then, you probably know that it had a pretty kick ass soundtrack. "Honey and the Moon" played during what I believe was the last scene of the very first episode of "The O.C.," as Sandy Cohen drove Ryan back to Chino, away from the Cohens, Marissa Cooper, and Newport Beach, CA. Marissa looks on, a little coyly, a little curiously. (Obviously not knowing what was to come.)